Gustav Ludwig Heinrich Mützel (December 7, 1839 – October 29, 1893) was a German artist, famous for his mammal and bird paintings, including the illustrations for the second edition of Alfred Edmund Brehm's ''Thierleben'' and

Richard Lydekker Richard Lydekker (; 25 July 1849 – 16 April 1915) was a British naturalist, geologist and writer of numerous books on natural history. He was known for his contributions to zoology, paleontology, and biogeography. He worked extensively in cata ...

'
''The Royal Natural History''
Gustav Mützel was the son of the painter Heinrich Mützel and his wife Luise Pauline Friedrichs. He attended the French high school in his hometown. Subsequently, Mützel began to study at the Academy of Art at age 18 and was, amongst others, a pupil of the painter Eduard Daege. On 1 November 1865 Mützel married Anna Schönherr in Berlin and raised three children; Hans, Walter and Gertrud. Mützel and his wife settled in Königsberg in the Neumark, where he was active as photographer. To keep up with the latest technical developments in photography Mützel and his family moved to Berlin in 1870. After the

Franco-German War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Jan ...

Mützel started illustrating some of the more important encyclopedias of the time. He created a large number of illustrations for the German Ornithological Society, having been a member since 1874. Mützel's diverse interests led also to his membership of the German Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory and the Association of Berlin artists. The Nießen'sche Choral Society awarded him with an honorary membership. Gustav Mützel died at his home (Hagelsberger Str. 10) at the age of 54 years on 29 October 1893 of heart and kidney ailments. He was interred at the cemetery in Mariendorf on 1 November.

Illustrated works

Alfred Brehm Alfred Edmund Brehm (; 2 February 1829 – 11 November 1884) was a German zoologist and writer. His multi-volume book '' Brehms Tierleben'', which he co-authored with Eduard Pechuël-Loesche, Wilhelm Haacke, and Richard Schmidtlein, becam ...

: '' Brehm's Thierleben'' * Alfred Brehm: ''Vom Nordpol zum Äquator'' * '' Brockhaus Konversationslexikon'' * Friedrich Lichterfeld: ''Illustrirte Tierbilder. Schilderungen und Studien nach dem Leben'' * Adolf Bernhard Meyer (Hrsg.): ''Unser Auer-, Rackel- und Birkwild und seine Abarten'' * Joseph Meyer: ''

Meyers Konversations-Lexikon or was a major encyclopedia in the German language that existed in various editions, and by several titles, from 1839 to 1984, when it merged with the . Joseph Meyer (publisher), Joseph Meyer (1796–1856), who had founded the publishing hous ...

'' * Heinrich Nehrling: ''Die Nordamerikanische Vogelwelt'' * Theodor D. Pleske: ''Ornithographia rossica'' („Die Vogelfauna des russischen Reiches“) * Nikolai Michailowitsch Przewalski: ''Wissenschaftliche Resultate der von N. M. Przewalski nach Central-Asien unternommenen Reisen'' (2 Bde.) *

Friedrich Ratzel Friedrich Ratzel (August 30, 1844 – August 9, 1904) was a German geographer and ethnographer, notable for first using the term ''Lebensraum'' ("living space") in the sense that the National Socialists later would. Life Ratzel's father was th ...

: ''Völkerkunde'' *

Anton Reichenow Anton Reichenow (1 August 1847 in Charlottenburg – 6 July 1941 in Hamburg) was a German ornithologist and Herpetology, herpetologist. Reichenow was the son-in-law of Jean Cabanis, and worked at the Natural History Museum, Berlin, Natural Histor ...

: ''Vogelbilder aus fernen Zonen'' *

Emil Adolf Roßmäßler Emil may refer to: Literature *''Emil and the Detectives'' (1929), a children's novel *"Emil", nickname of the Kurt Maschler Award for integrated text and illustration (1982–1999) *''Emil i Lönneberga'', a series of children's novels by Astr ...

: ''Das Süßwasseraquarium. Eine Anleitun und Pflege desselben'' * Richard Schmid-Cabanis: ''Zoolyrische Ergüsse. Ein Album zwei-, vier- und mehrfüssiger Dichtungen'' * Georg Schweinfurth: ''Im Herzen von Afrika. Reisen und Entdeckungen im zentralen Äquatorial-Afrika während der Jahre 1868-1871''

External links

* Th
Swedish translation of Brehm's Thierleben
with Mützel's illustrations in the first three of four volumes, has been digitized by

Project Runeberg Project Runeberg () is a digital cultural archive initiative that publishes free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries. Patterned after Project Gutenberg, it was founded by Lars Aronsson and ...

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1839 births 1893 deaths German illustrators German bird artists German painters of animals Französisches Gymnasium Berlin alumni 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists Artists from the Kingdom of Prussia {{Germany-painter-stub